Will 2014 mark the beginning of the end for employer-sponsored health insurance as we know it? Target recently announced that it will no longer provide health insurance for its part-time employees. Trader Joe's and Home Depot also made similar moves. Why? Some experts say it’s because of Obamacare. Others are not so sure.

This lack of competition for patients has a profound effect on the quality and cost of health care. Providers typically do not disclose prices prior to treatment because they do not compete for patients based on price. Payments are usually not made by patients themselves but by third parties — employers, insurance companies or government. But according to Devon M. Herrick, Ph.D., a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, in health care markets where providers do compete for patients, not only do prices come down, but outcomes improve.

There is one sector of the economy that will unquestionably benefit from the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare): Lawyers. According to Crain’s, attorneys are girding for the health care law’s potential to gush a flood of legal suits against employers. ACA is the gift to the plaintiffs bar that keeps on giving.

A state-of-the-art linear accelerator (left) and new imaging technology (right) at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center’s radiation oncology center enable physicians to deliver more customized cancer care. Based in Boston, Steward owns and operates 10 hospitals serving 85 communities in Massachusetts. The second-largest health system in New England after Partners HealthCare, Steward has an integrated, community-based model caring for more ...

A study of firms in four industries finds that a new type of wellness program that stresses “accountability” and uses financial incentives and individual coaching to improve employee health habits can lead to a sharp reduction in health claims and a boost to employer bottom lines.

Healthcare reform is a hot topic among politicians and business owners and as CEO of Premier, an alliance of more than 2400 hospitals and 70,000 non-acute healthcare sits, Susan DeVore says that healthcare reform will happen one way or another. Here's what DeVore sees as the future of healthcare.

Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act won't go into effect until 2014, but all business owners should sort our their employees' benefits beforehand. There will be a burden on individuals to maintain "minimal essential coverage," but if employers do not cover certain types of individuals, they will be fined.